I have varying thoughts about The Third Alternative and Interzone on an issue-by-issue basis. Some issues appeal more than others, though both are very good and Interzone especially has been noticably improving since the TTA-folk took over. What can’t be denied, though, is that they put together some of the nicest looking magazines in the business.

A few years ago Tor Books published Ted Chiang’s extraordinary first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others. Even though Chiang is a wonderful writer and Tor is a very fine publisher, it proved not to be a marriage made in heaven. Ted blogs about the details here.

Shaun Tan’s latest project, Aqua Sapiens – Mission Inconspicuous, is a collaboration with the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. It’s intensely cool. Shaun has designed and painted four very large puppets – they’re about 9 feet tall – and they take part in free public performances with a couple human actors. Marianne and I went to see it with Sophie, who was scared, but fascinated. I think she thought the best part was when the show was over and she could talk to one of the puppeteers and even go inside the biggest of the puppets. Very cool. It would make a great picture book (to give you an idea of scale, the puppet that was developed from the sketch shown here was about six feet high and seemed like a small vehicle). Oh, and there are six more performances you can catch if you’re in Perth.

I received the June issue of F&SF (which, by the way, is having a wonderful year) in my inbox last night. All of a sudden it felt like the year, which previously had been jogging away from me, was now at a dead run. Arg.